Sukhmani Sahib - Sikh Prayer Part 2

Description:
Sukhmani Sahib is a prayer in the form of a song to bring everlasting peace and comfort to the mind. Its sound is tranquilising and removes stress. Sukhmani Sahib opens your heart to live in gratitude, steadies your spiritual discipline, and connects you with your strength, endurance, courage and Infinite consciousness to overcome every obstacle. Listening to or reciting Sukhmani Sahib once a day can change your destiny from misery to prosperity and give you inner balance, grace, radiance, energy and the power to sacrifice.

The Sukhmani is probably the greatest composition of Guru Arjan Dev Ji. It is said that he wrote it in response to request from a devotee who was suffering form physical pain and mental anguish; it restored him to calm and health. The word 'Sukhmani' means the psalm of equipoise or jewel of bliss. it is reported that Wazir Khaq, the Governor of Lahore, whose real name was Hakim Alleem-ud-din Ansari, was suffering from a chronic stomach disease. He came to Amritsar for treatment and also visited the Harmandar Sahib. As Baba Buddha pressed his stomach, his condition became normal. When he met Guru Arjan, the latter told him to listen to a recitation of the "Sukhmani Sahib" daily, to gain inner peace. Wazir Khan then engaged a Sikh to recite this to him every day. By and by, he memorised the text and became a healthy and happy man.

The Sukhmani Sahib has structural unity. It has 24 staves (Salokas), one of which begins each canto. There are 24 cantos, each containing 8 stanzas. Each stanza has ten lines, that is five couplets. There is also the unity of theme: the perfection of man mentally. morally and spiritually. The stave of each canto gives the gist of the stanzas that follow.